This weekend has seen steady progress on a number of fronts at Apedale. There's not long to go now until the first weekend on the 2011 running season - our first full year of running at Apedale - so it's been a case of tidying up and making ready. The station building at "Silverdale" station is making good progress. It seems that the CME didn't quite understand when the builder said that the brickwork was almost complete, it just needed the pointing doing. Bless 'im, they've just changed the medication. The station building is a project managed by our neighbours at the Apedale Heritage Centre. The building itself came from the former Silverdale station, on the North Staffs Railway, and was used to shelter many a traincrew whilst they brewed up in between loading MGR coal trains at the adjacent colliery loader. Hence the building surviving long after the branch closed to passengers. Meanwhile, in anticipation of the hordes of interested members attending our imminent MRT AGM day, one or two of the rarer seen locomotives have had a quick outing - the photo shows petrol Motor Rail number 7033. This is the once-legendary Macclesfield loco -it lurked in a garage under a block of flats for many years, and had become something of a mystery amongst those who follow such things. That's the loco, not the flats. Finally, the C&W department seem to have been practicing for the Olympic "Name that Part" contest. If you can Name that Part, get in touch here.
